The dilemmas of maternal practices and care strategies for middle-aged and older women under China’s delayed retirement policy

As population aging intensifies and low birth rates persist, the growing burden of pension expenditures has formed an important background for China's implementation of a gradual delayed retirement policy. However, within the traditional gender division of labor in China, middle-aged and older women often bear dual maternal responsibilities-supporting adult children and caring for grandchildren. This study adopts in-depth interviews and participatory observation to engage 11 middle-aged and older women in Xianlin Sub-district, Qixia District, Nanjing. It analyzes their role conflicts under the dual pressures of work and family, and explores the influence of labor systems, gender norms, and welfare institutions. The study finds that although delayed retirement can increase their family income, maintain social networks, and improve their "empty nest" living situation, they still face challenges such as dual labor, time poverty under labor systems, exclusion from modern parenting discourses, and physical and mental exhaustion due to dual maternal roles, under the constraints of multiple social structures. These maternal practices reflect the struggles of middle-aged and older women within structural dilemmas arising from family gender role expectations, the lack of social policies and protections, internalized traditional cultural notions, and insufficient social support. Therefore, it is urgently needed to optimize social policies, promote the construction of harmonious family values, implement community-based childcare mutual assistance, and adjust family roles as care strategies to help middle-aged and older women reposition their roles within multiple social structures and reshape maternal spaces.